One old familiar trend and a couple of recent interesting developments were the key themes from our first Saturday meeting of the season at Sha Tin.
Zac Purton went into the day confident that his quiet spell was nothing to worry about and resumed normal service with a treble, while Joao Moreira recorded a double as our two leading riders took out half the card between them.
The fact that four of the ten races fell to horses who had travelled down from Conghua highlighted the growing value of our Mainland site again but perhaps the most notable theme to emerge related to the significant impact that Privately Purchased Griffins are having.
PPG’s form around 60 per cent of the Hong Kong horse population but the fact that they have never contested a race in public before coming here can make it tough for them to match high-class Private Purchases who have built up impressive records against elite opposition all over the world. However, a swift glance at the list of Hong Kong’s highest rated horses shows that PPG’s have been punching above their weight for quite some while now.
John Size is a master of getting the most from unraced horses and champion sprinter Beat The Clock is a classic example of that skill. Golden Sixty is the current PPG poster boy, but Hot King Prawn, Aethero, Voyage Warrior and Champion’s Way have all flown the flag at a high level. Winning Dreamer is another very promising PPG having won his first four and Saturday provided several more examples of how Hong Kong handlers turn unknown quantities into high-class racehorses.
Mighty Giant and Sky Field have both gone from strength to strength and showed they have plenty more good days ahead by finishing first and third in a very strong Class 2 contest that closed the card. However, time may show there was a performance of equal significance earlier on as Courier Wonder looked a horse of high potential by running clean away from the capable Everyone’s Delight on his debut.
So many details of this performance were notable, not least the way Joao was beaming before and after the line. John Size’s post-race comments added weight to the theory that we had seen something out of the ordinary and the fact that Courier Wonder came home in 22.31s – hitting the line in a final time just 0.4s outside the Class record despite being eased down – was very impressive.
In a strange quirk of fate, Courier Wonder’s full sister Icebath won at Randwick on Saturday and one of our recent yearling purchases also enjoyed a significant pedigree boost when his full brother Gear Up won the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud for trainer Mark Johnston and jockey James Doyle.
Gear Up and our new purchase are both by the exceptional sire Teofilo, which brings us very neatly to this week’s Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse. Our reigning Horse of the Year and dual champion middle distance stayer Exultant is also by Teofilo and his eagerly awaited reappearance in Sunday’s big race means the whole season goes up another notch as the build-up to the LONGINES HKIR continues.
Wednesday’s final race of the night is the Class 2 Time Warp Handicap over 1800m with Reliable Team and Bear Again left alone to set a moderate pace with Amazing Beats in a stalking position.
Most of the runners prefer do their best work from midfield or worse, which could have horses such as Star Shine, Insayshable and Tianchi Monster a bit closer than usual.
Amazing One Plus improved considerably in his first appearance at Happy Valley two weeks ago and is a horse that finished fifth in the 2018 Epsom Derby. He has had some setbacks since arriving in Hong Kong but his last race was encouraging as he was closing fast over 1650m. This extra distance should help and the further step up in trip makes him a win and place chance under Derek Leung.
Reliable Team is second up and has won four of eight starts at Happy Valley. He will be allowed to relax while making the pace with Bear Again and is a place chance to fight it out to the finish. Insayshable is back on a fair mark and is also a place chance after two good efforts in strong races this season, while Star Shine makes a big step up in trip after a pair of sharp efforts over 1400m and should go well along with in-form Tianchi Monster.
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